Now this is a good case that illustrates the limitations of PayPal insurance. The BIN is $900, the remote is not the original (which was the ONLY way to control the preamp) and the MAX PayPal protection is $300. Now, this seller has almost 5 hundred transactions to his credit with only a 94% approval rating; that is 29 bad transactions that we KNOW of. 4 red flags that I've been taught on here to watch out for.

Is this item so rare and desirable that it makes everyone giddy enough to disregard common sense precautions? Or am I just too bitchy before my morning coffee???

You called the original owner James, not the seller (the ad clearly states that they are 2 different people). 3 of the 4 red flags I raised were with the seller, not the owner and the 4 red flag (the remote) is one you brought up earlier.

The new ebay system of rating feedback sucks. He only has 6 negs out of allmost 500 positives but they have been soon enough to drop his feedback considerably. I personally believe this way ebays limits there liability considerably and this why its being done. I wouldndt mind having this but I would want someone local to examine pick up and ship rather than the seller, his negs do concern me, and he wants $154.95 shipping to my addy for a 20lb item packed.

Just to second the fact that the preamp can easily be controlled with a remote other than the original. I programmed a universal remote from the original remote, and put the original remote away for safe-keeping. Its too bad this one on Ebay doesn't have the original remote, but I wouldn't necessarily let that be a limiting factor. However, without the original remote, I wouldn't pay the "Buy it Now" price either.

Good luck I hope you get it. The way I see it is that it should easily be worth 600-700 just for a parts donor if nothing else. It would probally cost 600 or more to to send yours to rolland get fixed and come back if he could source the parts needed. I see the reserve hasnt been met yet, if you need someone to bump up the price to meet the reserve let me know.